The invention relates generally to computer display systems which have a sliding window for selecting a portion of an image to be magnified. Specifically, a window representing a magnified cursor is generated which is positionable in response to motion of a pointing device. One such system is described more particularly in the aforesaid related patent application. The magnifiable cursor described in the foregoing patent application provides the ability to read small detail on a computer-driven display. The cursor in its normal operation may be used to invoke a magnifiable cursor from a display tool bar on the computer-driven display. Once invoked, the cursor becomes a sliding window which is movable across the display screen. When positioned at a location of interest on the display screen, the slidable window permits viewing of the area under a pseudomagnification, i.e., the detail within the slidable window is expanded to a larger size by using multiple pixels within the slidable window to display the image detail within the slidable window. The ability to change the display scale of certain detail selected by a user should not be application-specific, but rather should be applicable to any browser/editor application independent of the operating system of the computer display system.
When positioning a magnifiable cursor over the display screen, it is disadvantageous to refresh the screen within the sliding window during the positioning process. Accordingly, as set forth in the aforesaid patent application, the sliding window is greyed in during positioning of the sliding window, by comparing the velocity of movement of the cursor with respect to a nominal threshold value. As the cursor is positioned to a selected location, the velocity decreases below the threshold value and refresh of the screen, particularly in the area of the slidable window, may be effected.
While magnifying a particular portion of a display image is desirable from a number of standpoints, it is also desirable to have properties within a sliding window displayed differently than the remaining portion of the display image. For instance, it may be advantageous to the user to display the portion of the image within the sliding window with different properties, i.e., different colors, text size, or even a different text font than outside of the sliding window. Accordingly, to make full use of the capabilities of the magnifiable cursor, the present invention is directed to controlling these properties of the display image within the sliding window.
It is an object of this invention to provide a method to change the properties of image detail displayed within a magnifiable cursor.
This and other objects of the invention are provided for by a set of instructions which can be read from a computer readable medium by a computer display system. The computer display system is equipped with a magnifiable cursor which generates a sliding window positionable by a pointing device operated by the user. When the sliding window is located at the user""s discretion on a particular detail to be displayed, the detail is magnified by displaying it over a greater number of pixels than detail which is outside of the sliding window. The sliding window has its own set of properties which may be different from those properties of the displayed image outside of the sliding window boundary. Background color, font style and size, of detail within the sliding window are independently controlled from the properties used to display the remaining portion of the image outside of the sliding window.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, the selection of the properties for detail displayed within the sliding window may be selected from pull-down menus which are available when the magnifiable cursor is invoked. The pull-down menus can provide selections for background color, text color, font type, or text size as properties to be used to display image detail appearing within the sliding window.
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the configuration menu may be selected by the user by clicking a mouse button, which is detected as a signal for invoking the configuration menu. Properties for the magnified portion of the image display may then be selected from the displayed pull-down menu.